Boston Red Sox @ Tampa Bay Rays (1)

After admiring the view from my balcony, I had to set off for my first game at Tropicana Field, which is over in St Petersburg proper. I knew that I needed to catch the Central Avenue Trolley (CAT) service from near the hotel, and having looked at the timetable, picked a time to leave for the bus stop, as it's very hot and humid here in the late afternoon and you don't want to be spending much time outside then - it's the worst time of the day for it. Well, I saw it go past before I got to the street - which must have meant it left the southern end of the island early, so I had to wait half an hour for the next one and thus miss the start of the game, although it wasn't too bad as it was only the first inning. Unfortunately, the last return trip to St Pete's Beach leaves the downtown terminus at 9.45pm, passing Tropicana Field just a few minutes later, which means I'm going to miss the end of all the games. However, the price for a taxi would be exorbitant - it's a 50 minute journey on the bus, so it would have been a lot more than the $20 each way in Miami.

In the end, I saw most of the game. David Price was pitching for the Rays, and apart from the one deep ball that the centre fielder Jennings failed to catch at the wall, the Red Sox did nothing throughout the entire game. That one drop, plus a couple of sacrifices led to the 2 Boston runs, which was enough as a combination of Red Sox pitchers shut out the Rays 2-0. It was a disappointing start to this important series for the Rays - with the Red Sox out front in the division, the Rays are dropping into a tight wild card race that they'd rather not be a tight race.

Visiting Tropicana Field completes my AL East site visits - I've now only not visited the Angels, Dodgers and Diamondbacks. Tropicana Field has a reputation for being one of the worst stadia in MLB, and I can see why. There are two main problems: the ceiling and the lights. The ceiling is the same colour as the ball, which gives fielders trouble in seeing it. However, for me as a spectator, the worse problem is the lights, which are so low that they are shining in your eyes. I hadn't bothered wearing my cap, as it was an indoor stadium - I shall take it tomorrow to try and shield my eyes from the lights. This is the last remaining stadium in the major leagues that has a non-retractable roof. Partly, that's to do with the construction methods to help make it hurricane-proof - an important consideration in this part of the world, but the whole stadium looks an odd shape. with one end higher than the other - apparently to reduce the amount of air that needs to be cooled inside the stadium!